The suspected drone attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi, which killed three people and started a separate fire at Abu Dhabi’s international airport, was anticipated by UAE officials, with sources saying buzz of Dubai being the next target has sent the top brass into a tizzy.
Sources from UAE Intelligence Services told CNN-News18 that there is fear the attack may be replicated in Dubai at the Dubai Expo or Global Village which are frequented by lakhs of people daily.
UAE officials hold the view that Monday’s attack could have been a warning or a test trial for such an attack.
UAE has spent a significant amount to create an aerial security zone over the Dubai Expo area to ward off any drone-type attack.
However, at the moment, authorities are downplaying the incident as a similar attack at the much-publicised Dubai Expo may cut into investment and discourage investors, a loss too big for the royalty and the UAE economy.
Two Indians and one Pakistani were killed in Monday’s attack. “Small flying objects” were found as three petrol tanks exploded in an industrial area and a fire was ignited at the airport, police said, as Houthi rebels announced “military operations” in the UAE.
Drone attacks are a hallmark of the Houthis’ assaults on Saudi Arabia, the UAE ally that is leading the coalition fighting for Yemen’s government in the civil war. The Al Jazeera reported.
Yemen’s Houthi rebel group warned it could target more facilities in the UAE. Monday’s attack, it said, involved five ballistic missiles and several drones.
The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the missiles and drones had been launched at Abu Dhabi and Dubai airports, an oil refinery in Abu Dhabi’s Musaffah area and other “sensitive” targets in the UAE.
“The armed forces carried out … a successful military operation within the framework of an operation named Yemeni Hurricane,” Saree said in a statement broadcast on the group’s Al Masirah TV channel.
Meanwhile, the UAE said the attack will not go unpunished. “The UAE condemns this terrorist attack by the Houthi militia on areas and civilian facilities on Emirati soil … [It] will not go unpunished,” the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The UAE reserves the right to respond to these terrorist attacks and criminal escalation,” it added.
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